BCS questions Mountain West's makeup

"Yes," Thompson wrote. "The decision on the Mountain West's request... should be taken well before any combination between the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA goes into effect."

Only the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big East conferences have automatic berths to BCS games. Those games -- the Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowls, plus the BCS championship game -- can significantly boost the revenues of participating conferences through revenue-sharing. Each conference with an automatic berth gets about $22 million, according to the BCS.

The 2012 and 2013 seasons will be the last under the current BCS system. After that, such automatic berths will go away and likely will be replaced by a small playoff format.

In the meantime, the Mountain West still wants an automatic BCS berth for those two seasons.

The Big East previously was granted a similar request from the BCS despite substandard performance on the field, according to BCS criteria.